Police Arrest 4 on Suspicion of Stealing Checks From Mailboxes

LAKE FOREST —  Sheriff’s investigators arrested four people suspected of stealing checks from mailboxes in various areas of Orange County for the past two years and chemically treating them to remove the ink so they could use their names on the checks.

Jim Snyder, 33, Danny Preste, 34, Scott Everet, 38, and Susan Everet, 28, were arrested Wednesday at a Lake Forest hotel, Sheriff’s Lt. Hector Rivera said. They were booked into the Orange County Jail on suspicion of mail theft and forgery.

Authorities said they stole mail in residential areas at night, particularly targeting mailboxes with raised flags indicating outgoing mail.

Investigators found more than 50 stolen and forged checks, many of them bill payments, in two hotel rooms, and said some were in the process of being chemically treated. Additional stolen property and drug paraphernalia also were found in the rooms, authorities said.